This disclosure relates to gas turbine engine systems and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for condition based monitoring of a filter house included in gas turbine engine systems.
Gas turbine engine systems typically include a compressor for compressing a working fluid, such as air. The compressed air is injected into a combustor which combusts the fluid causing it to expand, and the expanded fluid is forced through a turbine. As the compressor consumes large quantities of air, small quantities of dust, aerosols and water pass through and deposit on the compressor (e.g., deposit onto blades of the compressor). These deposits impede airflow through the compressor and degrade overall performance of the gas turbine engine over time. Therefore, a filter house in an intake may include one or more filters used to filter or otherwise block the particles from entering the gas turbine engine. However, over time the filters accumulate particles (e.g., become dirty) and may cause a drop in air pressure and air flow in the intake that affects the efficiency of the gas turbine engine. In some instances, schedule based monitoring may be used to change the filters in the filter house, for example, after a certain amount of engine operating hours. As may be appreciated, some environments (e.g., close to seashore) may contain higher levels of particles that accelerate the dirtiness of the filters. Dirtier filters may cause the gas turbine engine to operate inefficiently until the scheduled replacement date. In another example, some environments may contain lower levels of particles that decelerate the dirtiness level of the filters, which may lead to a clean filter being changed too early.